Follow Through
by delta-foxtrotwrites
Summary: oneshot request. Blair sets aside her feelings for Georgina to be a good friend to Dan.


**Author's note: **On my tumblr I have started taking oneshot/scene requests and this was the first one I got and the prompt was 'Blair comforting Dan about Milo.' For awhile I toyed with how to make the Milo storyline relevant again and how to make Blair inclusive to the storyline at that and this was eventually what I came up with. The following is just a short drabble about Blair trying to be a good friend to Dan a few years on from current gossip girl time, I would put them around twenty four here, maybe older. I am still working on Comparative Literature, but also venting my need to pursue other storylines while I do so, so I will post the other things I am working on both on tumblr and on here. If you would like to request something my tumblr url is dressmyselffortwo and the direct link can be found on my profile page. If you don't have tumblr and would still like to request something drop a review or a private message and I will see what I can do :D

**Follow Through**

It was night time in New York. Friday to be precise and for once Blair and Dan had set aside their regular movie date (purely friendly they would needlessly emphasise to anyone who asked) for what Blair proposed as a one time offer. It had come to her attention that Dan, living alone in the loft and having much of his time accounted for didn't have a lot of time in which he could afford to either relax, or keep the place tidy. She had supposed, given the circumstances, with Dan being exhausted after long days at work for the magazine he was writing for, and her monopolizing any of the free time he was granted that it seemed only fair she helped him out.

And so Dan was granted the sight of Blair Waldorf dressed down and doing household tasks he didn't even realize she was capable of. She swept through the kitchen and wiped benches and straightened a stack of old copies of the New Yorker that littered the counter. She rearranged his closet and criticised his clothes while she did so, though Dan couldn't say he was awfully surprised.

The real feat in tidying the loft up (which wasn't really all that messy as Dan was a relatively tidy male considering he didn't have staff to clean up after him) was tackling his desk. Dan's converted office boasted towers of papers detailing short stories and articles he had written and reworked for his job. "You need a PA" Blair pointed out as she stared down at the desk and the task that lay before her. "Filling your short stories will be the death of me" she joked lightly, taking a seat at his desk.

The garage slider between the spaces was open and Dan lay propped against pillows on his bed, looking over to Blair with an amused grin. "You don't have to bother with them. Honestly, I'm surprised you actually wiped the kitchen counter" he teased, the image of Blair reluctantly holding a dish cloth and spray bottle still fresh in his mind.

His week had been long and Dan couldn't say that he hadn't appreciated Blair's efforts in fixing the place up, but his desk he was more than aware of was a disaster. Tidying it himself had been a notion that he had been toying with, but the feat was so substantial that Dan had been putting it off for months by now.

"Blair Waldorf is not a quitter. I said I was going to tidy this place up and your desk is in the most need of my attention" the brunette asserted with a newfound sense of determination, plucking pages off the desk at random and allowing her gaze to ghost over the words so she could garner some sort of idea as to how to begin cataloguing his work. She insisted on doing it all herself, forcing Dan to relax with a book she had been imploring him to read for weeks and at the hands of Blair Waldorf, Dan knew better than to argue.

"So, I suppose you have a folder somewhere specifically set aside for all your stories about Serena?" Blair mused with a playfully taunting smile on her lips while her brown eyes flickered over to Dan in anticipation of his response.

Glancing up from the pages of the book he was supposed to be reading Dan offered Blair a wry grin. "I actually keep all of those stories in my bedside drawer so I have something to fall back on during sleepless nights" he stated in nonchalance, though the smile he wore gave him away effortlessly.

Blair, undecided on what to make of Dan's response continued to look at him dubiously until Dan chuckled and shook his head; "You won't find any stories about Serena, it's been a long time, I've broadened my horizons."

"I'm sure you have Humphrey" Blair quipped with a smug grin and a small touch of sarcasm. "Tell me" she went on distractedly, beginning to pile stories that seemed relevant to one another in her lap so she could reach for another. "When was the last time you went out on a date, and taking me as your plus one to your Christmas party does not count by the way" she added tactfully, a smirk reigning present on her lips as she recalled the party a few days previous.

With the holiday season among them Dan and Blair had been heavily relying on one another for company to make it through the festive time. Dan attended Blair's champagne black tie Christmas gathering for work, and in turn she wore a dress more expensive then any other woman's in the room and accompanied Dan to his slightly smaller scaled do on Christmas Eve. Cyrus and Eleanor were spending Christmas in Paris and Dan had extended an invitation to Blair to attend the Humphrey's Christmas with Lily, Serena, Eric, Nate and Rufus.

Dan struggled for a moment, thinking back through the past few weeks and trying to recall which of his more recent ventures had been the latest. It had been awhile, he'd been busy, spending most of his time with Blair and not being actively interested in anyone in any event.

"Madison" he claimed triumphantly. "Last month," but Blair wasn't listening, instead her attention was drawn to the papers in her hands while her dark eyes softened considerably as they glossed over the words on the page.

"Blair?" Dan called out her name, snapping her back to reality effortlessly.

She had read the letter she held in her hands once before, almost a month ago when Dan had directed her to his desk so she could go over the article he had been working on. At the time though, she had said nothing, unsure of what she possibly could say and even more than that, unsure of what Dan needed her to say. It was a delicate situation. Blair had invaded his privacy, she had broken the law; it was against the law to read someone else's mail, wasn't it? And she wanted to be there for him, to be understanding and consoling, but it wasn't something she particularly knew how to be.

Rising from her seat Blair approached Dan with the letter in her hands. "Humphrey" his name passed her lips lilting and soft which alerted Dan to the fact that their conversation was about to take a vastly different direction. With her perfectly sculpted brows furrowing over her eyes she watched as Dan set aside the book she had wanted him to read and dedicated his attention to her entirely, a curious expression in his dark chocolate eyes.

Reaching his bedside Blair held the letter out to him with an apology written all over her face. "I know I shouldn't have read it, and I'm sorry for doing so but I found it awhile ago and I didn't say anything because I thought you might tell me about it" a short and sad laugh escaped her while she shook her head and Dan reached for the pieces of lined paper in Blair's grasp, concerned for what she had found.

He merely had to glance at the letter to become firmly acquainted with the situation and was filled with a sense of dread that immediately made his eyes harden and become stoic. "You weren't supposed to know, no one was supposed to know" he said, placing the letter aside on the opposing bedside table as if the further away it was the less imposing it would be.

Blair, for a split second, reconsidered her impending approach, but pushed on. "Dan, why didn't you say anything? Why didn't you let me help you? I didn't even know that you wanted to see him, let alone that you had tried…"

Dan laughed shortly and bitterly, shaking his head before his gaze fell on the brunette currently towering over him despite her short stature. "What was I supposed to say Blair?" he threw out rhetorically, the words sounding tired in their delivery. "It's been four years and he still feels like my son? Or maybe I could have asked if you had anything we could use to blackmail her so I could be a part of his life? What about I'm pathetic and I miss a child that wasn't ever mine to miss?"

Smiling cynically Dan dragged his fingers through his hair. "Georgina made it perfectly clear that I couldn't have anything to do with Milo. I didn't see the point in bringing it up."

With a face full of anguish Blair fell onto the mattress beside him and immediately reached for his hand. Her fingers wrapped around his in a way she hoped was comforting, though she had little to no experience in the consoling department. "I hate that I couldn't be there for you" she said quietly, her gaze flickering up to meet his before diverting and falling on their joint hands. "You shouldn't have had to go through that on your own. If I had known I would have…"

Dan sighed quietly, a faint smile lifting the corners of his lips. "You would have what, Waldorf?"

Blair huffed at his doubt in her. "I would have done whatever I could."

Laughing timidly Dan detached their hands and pulled Blair into his side with an arm around her shoulders. "I don't think there's anything even you could have done" he said.

"What if I told you I had done something?" Blair tentatively implored, looking up at Dan hopefully.

Dan's eyes narrowed, torn between not wanting to get his hopes up and being curious of what Blair had managed. "Blair" he stated in a low voice. "Please tell me you didn't meddle."

"Humphrey" she chastised him, reaching over the edge of his bed to retrieve her bag and place it beside her so she could rifle through it and extract the folder she had brought along for him. Proffering the file to him Blair cleared her throat in prelude of her impending explanation. "I may or may not have convinced Georgina to send you monthly updates. But in my own defence what sort of friend would I be if I didn't do anything when I could have" she insisted. "Georgina used you, and I refuse to let her do anything more to you if there's something I can do about it."

Flipping the file open Dan's eyes roamed over the contents with intrigue, photos of a dark haired, brown eyed little boy easily standing out in amongst a letter with Georgina's handwriting covering it and transcripts, amongst other things.

"He started school in August" Blair explained, pointing out a picture of the little boy wearing a private school uniform and carrying a school bag that looked far too big for his small frame, standing outside the school that she, Serena, Nate and Chuck had all attended when they were Milo's age. "I made Georgina include dates for each of his accomplishments, his first words, when he started walking. Everything is in here."

With his eyes flickering from the file in his lap to Blair Dan cast about for something sufficient to say. Knowing as he did, the extent to which Blair hated Georgina he was touched that she had gone out of her way to secure this for him. "I.. Blair, I don't know what to-thank you" he stumbled around his words and the smile that was beginning to spread across his lips.

Blair waved her hand dismissively, brushing aside her efforts. "Dan, please, this was the least I could do" she assured him, sitting up and turning around to face him. With a warm smile she squeezed his hand. "You should take a look at everything" she entreated, standing and slowly making her way back to his desk. "I have a job to do" she grinned, gesturing behind her to the piles of paper awaiting her cataloguing.

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><p>Thank you to all of you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!<p> 


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